This invention relates to floating booms for controlling the spread of contaminants over the surface of water, and in particular relates to a fireproof oil-spill boom that is stored in a folded state and is quickly and easily deployable to its working state.
The proliferation of large oil tankers carrying petroleum products near coastal regions and the increased environmental awareness of the public at large has led to the need for and development of floating boom fences to surround and control the spread of oil spills and spills of other liquid contaminants in harbors and other coastal waters to prevent the oil or other contaminants from damaging coastal shorelines and the plant life and animal life living in those regions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,856, issued Nov. 17, 1981 to Magoon et al. and incorporated herein by reference, contains a brief but thorough discussion of several of the oil-spill containment booms that have been developed over the years.
A major problem, which has gone unaddressed in the majority of the prior art oil-spill booms, is the containment of a spill consisting of oil or some other flammable contaminant that has been ignited and is burning on the water's surface. Also, in certain instances, the simplest method of removing the contaminant from the water is to set it on fire and allow it to burn itself away in a confined area without the possibility of the burning contaminant reaching the shoreline, docks or other locations where it could do damage. Many of the conventional oil-spill booms have the problem, when confronted with a burning spill, of having the entire construction material of the boom burn away. At the very least, the flotation material that keeps the boom afloat is melted or vaporized thereby causing the boom to lose its buoyancy during the course of the fire due to the intense heat generated by the burning contaminant. Also, the booms tend to be so damaged by the heat and flames that they are not reusable.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a floating oil-spill containment boom that can be utilized in the presence of flames and high temperatures to contain a burning spill of oil or other flammable contaminants without losing the flotation of the oil boom and also that will allow reuse of the boom for subsequent spill containment and repeated burning.